A Chicago woman is facing several charges after she crashed her minivan, with four passengers inside, in north suburban Wilmette on Friday night, then ran into a stranger’s home.
Angela Roache-Pena, 35, was driving in the 300 block of Isabella Street at 7:41 p.m. Friday when she went through barricades for a construction zone, struck a Bobcat tractor and trash bin, and kept going until the van hit a parked car a block away, according to a statement from Wilmette police.
She grabbed a child from the van and ran toward a home in the 500 block of Isabella, police said. The resident came outside when they heard the crash, and Roache-Pena ran inside and locked the front door.
When the resident entered the home through a back door, Roache-Pena pulled out a knife and the resident left, police said. Officers arrived and took her into custody.
Roache-Pena and the child; along with another child and two passengers who she’d left in the van, were taken to Evanston and Skokie hospitals for injuries they suffered in the crash.
After she was released from the hospital, Roache-Pena was charged with felony counts of home invasion and aggravated DUI causing bodily harm, and misdemeanor counts of assault, criminal danger to property, endangering the life or health of a child, and DUI drugs, according to police. She was also cited for seven traffic offenses and eight local offenses, including possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis.
Roache-Pena, of the 5000 block of West Maypole, was ordered held on an $80,000 bond, according to police. She is next scheduled to appear in court in Skokie on Aug. 9.
